cannabisnews.com: Hempfest To Feature Edmonds Writer Rick Steves
Hempfest To Feature Edmonds Writer Rick Steves
Posted by CN Staff on August 16, 2008 at 05:43:45 PT
By David Chircop, Herald Writer
Source: Herald
Edmonds, WA -- Travel writer and public television host Rick Steves isn't shy about his disdain for America's current marijuana laws.They're costing taxpayers billions of dollars burdening cops and courts, he says, breaking up families with jail sentences and siphoning government resources that would be better spent on more serous crimes and treatment for drug addicts.
"This is a very costly, divisive way to deal with a pervasive problem in our society," said Steves of Edmonds, whose syndicated weekly column runs in The Herald. The travel guru is scheduled to take the main stage and preach to the "legalize it" choir at Seattle's Hempfest today and Sunday.It's the largest pro-pot pep rally in the country. Organizers expect as many as 100,000 people to attend the free event.Steves, the clean-cut force behind a multimillion-dollar travel empire, which includes guide books, a tour company and a nationally televised show, said most of the people on the front lines of drug reform are not potheads.Leading voices include former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, now one of the most outspoken critics of the war on drugs.Steves' passion for drug reform is inspired by a perspective shaped by spending years abroad, he said."I don't think it's an issue of being hard on drugs or soft on drugs; it's a matter of being smart on drugs," said Steves, who returned this week from the Netherlands, where some coffee shops sell marijuana. More than 800,000 people are arrested in the United States annually under current marijuana laws. The vast majority, about 90 percent, are arrested for possession, according to government statistics. The estimated price tag to enforce those laws nationally is about $7.5 billion, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released earlier this year.The government believes marijuana is more harmful than some claim. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released a report in May saying that teen use of marijuana can worsen depression and lead to suicide or serious mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and anxiety.Today's marijuana is also about twice as potent as it was in the 1970s.Analysis of seized samples of marijuana show that levels of THC -- the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana -- have reached the highest-ever amounts since scientific analysis of the drug began in the late 1970s.Recent samples show an average THC content of 9.6 percent. This compares to an average of less than 4 percent reported in 1983 and represents more than a doubling in the potency of the drug in that time.Marijuana smoke contains carcinogens and may promote lung cancer, increase the risk of bronchitis and weaken the immune system.In recent years, drug experts have noticed a new trend among organized drug rings. More are setting up shop locally. Traffickers with ties to the Canadian drug trade are operating hundreds of sophisticated indoor marijuana farms in Washington.Police have seen an increase in violence associated with the operations. Two people were shot to death last year inside an Everett grow operation. Police believe the victims were paid to tend the marijuana plants for a larger organization.Despite the government's efforts to eradicate the supply, pot is readily available in most places.Steves said the prohibition on marijuana should be considered a failure, similar to the prohibition on alcohol between 1920 and 1933, which gave rise to violent organized crime.Steves, 52, has spent a third of his adult life in Europe. He said the United States would be wise to learn from European countries that have adopted a more relaxed attitude toward marijuana.Many in Europe see a joint as exciting as a can of beer, he said. Here, there's more stigma attached and those who smoke pot are more prone to keep their use secret, he said."I have good friends, who don't have the fire in their bellies that I do, who have to live two lives," Steves said. "In Europe, more sophisticated people look at us and say, 'I don't get it; don't you have more important things to worry about?' "Earlier this decade, Steves publicly acknowledged that he occasionally smokes marijuana while in Europe.Since then, he's become a poster boy of sorts for decriminalization movement and is board member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He also hosts "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation," a 30-minute video released by The ACLU of Washington earlier this year.Steves said there are far less controversial causes for which to fight. "Save the whales, global warming, homelessness," he said, but he feels it's important to stand up against what he considers a "big lie.""It took courageous people to stand up and question the prohibition against alcohol," he said.Note: Rick Steves is rallying against U.S. marijuana laws at Seattle's pro-pot festival today.Source: Herald, The (Everett, WA)Author: David Chircop, Herald WriterPublished: Saturday, August 16, 2008Copyright: 2008 The Daily Herald Co.Contact: letters heraldnet.comWebsite: http://www.heraldnet.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Seattle Hempfesthttp://www.hempfest.org/Hempfest's Grass is Greener This Yearhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24110.shtmlHempfest Ad on Bus Criticized by Somehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread24105.shtml
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on August 19, 2008 at 17:27:15 PT
afterburner
We are planning to become more and more independent. We ran from the east coast and the congestion many years ago. We saw where it was headed. I appreciate these words below.Excerpt: America has no real future. Not a good one, anyway. I give the nation anywhere from 5 to 25 years before it will self destruct under a mountain of debt, disease and corruption. You can thank the corporations and corrupt politicians for that. They've thrown away the dream of a nation that was once great and could actually be great again, if not for the greed.My message to all U.S. citizens is to prepare yourself now for what's coming. Get out of debt. Get healthy. Invest in your education and learn some practical skills like gardening, bicycle repair or natural medicine. Own some productive land and learn how to use it. Be near a source of fresh water. When the oil runs out, and the fresh water tables are drained, and the financial system collapses, and the real estate bubble bursts, life is going to be a whole lot harder than it is today. Forget about shopping malls, must-see TV and the latest fashions. Most families are going to be struggling just to put food on the table.
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Comment #22 posted by afterburner on August 19, 2008 at 16:43:58 PT
FoM #21
Government of the People (comic).
Thursday, June 21, 2007 by: Mike Adams (see all articles by this author) | Key concepts: corporations, America and hyperinflation
http://www.naturalnews.com/021909.htmlSome of the predictions in this article have already begun to happen. We can change the path we're on, but only if we keep working at it. We owe it to future generations to be better stewards of the blessings that the earth has showered upon us.
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on August 19, 2008 at 16:17:00 PT
afterburner
I honestly don't know how people write off people so easily. It takes a lot for me to do that.
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Comment #20 posted by afterburner on August 19, 2008 at 16:10:03 PT
Joyce is Unbelievable : FoM #1
{
Joyce Nalepka, president of Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge, points out that recovering cocaine addicts say that the high from cocaine is so intense that you never stop wanting it. She points to the case of former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who was caught twice using cocaine. Barry was caught in one case as a result of a police sting and another because of court-ordered drug testing.Don't you believe Obama when he says he quit drugs? "No," replied Nalepka. "And I didn't believe Mayor Barry either." ..."I would never vote for an elected official who was ever a drug user," she tells AIM. "We have to get this country back to being an honorable nation with honorable people running it."
}So, the solution is jailing all "drug users" to keep them from contaminating society? How are we going to continue to pay for this crazy experiment with the economy in tatters? Is there no possibility of rehabilitation? Just punish, punish, punish? Is this what a nation that was once the champion of fairness and human rights has become? Only if we continue to believe and support the mad prohibitionists in their attempts to hijack the American Dream. Also, does she mean honorable people like Nixon, Reagan and Bush II who have used honorable drugs, like alcohol or tobacco (and, whoops, cocaine)?
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on August 17, 2008 at 20:43:28 PT
Storm Crow
I don't understand our priorities. We have so many needs in our country and all we want to do is go to war and punish people that look at life in a little different way. We need good education for the upcoming generation. They are the future.
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Comment #18 posted by Storm Crow on August 17, 2008 at 17:38:49 PT
7.5 billion dollars....
Would buy a lot of school books, provide much needed aides in over-crowded classrooms and support music and athletic programs! My school's budget has been cut. There were two aides last year in special ed. This year, I'm it! I will be trying to do the work of two, and my kids (and everyone else's) will be "short-changed" until this country gets its priorities right! I'm just hoping that my job will survive the next wave of budget cuts! My teacher said if my job got cut, she was going to quit! "Mission Impossible!" was her assessment of trying to manage without an aide to help!
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Comment #17 posted by observer on August 17, 2008 at 14:19:14 PT
7.5 Billion Dollars of Bought and Paid for People
to enforce those laws nationally is about $7.5 billionThat's about $7.5 billion in salaries, products and services that end up as a big, voting constituency. Naturally, since they earn their $7.5 billion-a-year livings from jailing people involved with the cannabis plant, they don't want that gravy train to halt. $7.5 billion dollars a year buys lots of "marijuana is worse than rape/murder" people and propaganda. Corruption, pure and simple. But don't expect the crowd who gets the $7.5 billion a year to admit it.
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Comment #16 posted by fight_4_freedom on August 17, 2008 at 07:42:01 PT
Hope
We took two very long walks with my niece and nephew, and my sister's two very energetic dogs, shopped for quite a while, and went out to eat a couple of times. It was quite an eventful day so we decided to cut it a little short. Her kids really seem to wear me out really fast. lolToday will be more of a delightful day I suppose. We are starting off the day by going to a coffee shop near the house, then we shall head to the beach. Somewhere along the lines I hope to stop by a friends to pick up some herbal remedies.Then I get to babysit tonight when my sister goes to pick up her husband from the airport.Should be quite an interesting day.I hope you all enjoy yours as well.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on August 17, 2008 at 06:04:15 PT
fight_4_freedom
I have enjoyed watching Michael Phelps win like he has. He has quite a future ahead of him.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on August 16, 2008 at 23:13:49 PT
'Bout ready to call it a day...
Fight 4 Freedom, you seem to be back too early for it to have been an exceptionally delightful evening, or at least a very extended, exceptionally delightful evening. I hope you have had and are having an enjoyable evening.
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Comment #13 posted by fight_4_freedom on August 16, 2008 at 22:08:06 PT
How about that Michael Phelps
winning 8 gold medals??? Incredible. I haven't watched too many events though. Basketball is my favorite sport and most of the games are shown early in the morning so I tend to miss most of them.I will certainly watch the big games where they play for the medals though.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on August 16, 2008 at 22:04:07 PT
2008 Seattle Hempfest: Proud To Smoke Marijuana
Photo Gallery: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/spied/picks.asp?ID=128Thousands of people gathered Saturday along the Puget Sound waterfront to eat, smoke, listen to music and enjoy the sun, all in support of marijuana policy reform at the 2008 Seattle Hempfest. The 17th annual festival featured hundreds of speakers and music performers who kept the huge crowds that packed Elliott Bay, Myrtle Edwards Park and Olympic Sculpture Park entertained from morning to dusk.URL: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/spi/archives/146347.asp?from=blog_last3
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on August 16, 2008 at 21:46:52 PT
John Tyler
Thank you for sharing that information. I have watched the Olympics almost every night and China is an interesting country. I know all the bad but some of the mountains and the people who farm in rural China are almost mystical.
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Comment #10 posted by John Tyler on August 16, 2008 at 21:25:23 PT
historic hippy
I was watching the Olympics and they did this little story about how the ping-pong diplomacy in the early 1970’s started. Get this, it was started by a hippie guy on the ping-pong team that got on the wrong bus after some ping-pong tournament and ended up with the Chinese ping-pong team. They hit it off real well and one thing led to another and he ended up talking to the Chinese foreign minister, Zhou Enlai, about hippy philosophy. It was so random, and so Karmic. The guy was Glenn Cowan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_Pong_Diplomacy
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on August 16, 2008 at 20:10:05 PT
Seattle Hempfest
That is an astounding lineup.http://hempfest.org/drupal/?q=node/58/#Main
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on August 16, 2008 at 18:56:28 PT
Update On The Seattle Hempfest
Celebrating All Things Cannabis -- Hempfest Draws Throngs To Myrtle Edwards ParkAugust 16, 2008They poured into Myrtle Edwards Park on the Seattle waterfront Saturday -- thousands of cannabis-lovers in Seattle to network and celebrate their favorite green plant.Complete Article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/375309_hempfest17.html
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Comment #7 posted by NikoKun on August 16, 2008 at 12:26:45 PT
inconsistant... (just a random thought)
While normally we try to base policies off of solid known evidence... With Marijuana policies we base things off of unknowns, maybes and possibilities, and risks they don't fully understand the cause of.
For YEARS, the excuse for keeping marijuana criminalized was "that we don't fully understand it".
And even today some people claim we need to do more research, in defense of prohibition.
Tell me, in what other situations do we base CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT off of maybes and "oh well we don't fully know"... -_-We continue to punish medical users, because politicians claim we don't understand medical marijuana... what bullshit.
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Comment #6 posted by ekim on August 16, 2008 at 12:09:18 PT
old dogs do learn new tricks
Saturday, August 16, 2008 from petes site--www.drugwarrant.com
OopsLast year, David Krahl worked for Calvina Fay as deputy director of the Drug Free America Foundation, lobbying against medical marijuana.
Seems he's learned a few things since then.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n787/a01.html
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on August 16, 2008 at 11:25:10 PT
The Devil Dogs
and their masked, militarized, jack booted minions.Do the minions belong to the them, or they to the minions?
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on August 16, 2008 at 11:08:30 PT
Man! Corsi, Kincaid, Nalepka....
The Devil Dogs are snarling again. Guess it's time to give up the chihuahua image I cherish. I liked to think of us as a bunch of relatively gentle "little" people that are, together, raising as much fuss about a wrong and an injustice as we can. They appear to me as Devil Dogs now... so I feel that I must find a better image in my mind. Maybe... instead of angry chihuahuas, I see us as all encompassing bright, bright light. Naturally, in my tendency to knee-jerk anger, I thought of a fire breathing dragon first... but that's not big enough and it's just more of the same snarling.Just a thought.They, the Devil Dogs, are vicious though.You are, in my eyes, C-Newsers, and all people who want to end the injustice and the overwrought punishment and insanity of the war on so many, many people, a bright, bright light to shine against the darkness of the Devil Dogs' hateful crusade. Shine on, people.
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Comment #3 posted by Storm Crow on August 16, 2008 at 09:59:40 PT
Details, details!
"Recent samples show an average THC content of 9.6 percent. This compares to an average of less than 4 percent reported in 1983 and represents more than a doubling in the potency of the drug in that time."A small detail to remember...The pot of the 80 was often mixed with leaves, stems,and dirt (and one time we even found a mummified mouse!) Of course, the level of THC today's cannabis is higher! There is no "trash" in today's pot! None of that "trash" adds to the THC level of the 80s cannabis- it lowers it. Today's cannabis users turn their noses up at anything except straight bud!
Also, stronger pot just means you need less for the same effect! To use an alcohol metaphor- you don't drink a beer stein full of Jack Daniels! Give us a little credit for SOME sense, sir! And perhaps, for a change, look at the facts!
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Comment #2 posted by Had Enough on August 16, 2008 at 09:53:59 PT
Re: #1 Drug users in the White House???
Re: #1 Drug users in the White House???“Joyce Nalepka, president of Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge, points out that recovering cocaine addicts say that the high from cocaine is so intense that you never stop wanting it. She points to the case of former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who was caught twice using cocaine. Barry was caught in one case as a result of a police sting and another because of court-ordered drug testing. Don't you believe Obama when he says he quit drugs? "No," replied Nalepka. "And I didn't believe Mayor Barry either."”and…"I would never vote for an elected official who was ever a drug user," she tells AIM. "We have to get this country back to being an honorable nation with honorable people running It." ”and…“"And we're going to allow someone to come in to the White House of the United States of America who was a drug user?"”Hhmmm…Doesn’t a cocaine user occupy the White House now??? Does she think George W still does cocaine??? Does she think he should be drug tested??? What say you Joyce??? Let us hear your views on the current president.Her part about honorable people running an honorable nation…Does she say that our nation and the people who are currently running this country are not honorable???Watch out Joyce, you might be unknowingly pissing off so called important people, like your boss/master and getting in their way.Talk about spin…This girl is still at it…but I think she knows her stuff isn’t working as well as it used to. I wonder what her next occupation will be.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 16, 2008 at 08:42:02 PT
Excerpt: Obama and Drug Related Issue
Excerpt:The Attack BeginsActing on information provided by a left-wing group known as Media Matters, which functions as an unofficial arm of the Democratic Party, the New York Times attacked Corsi for charging that Obama has "yet to answer" whether he ever dealt drugs and when he stopped, if indeed he ever did. The Times protested that Obama has answered that charge, at least the part about quitting marijuana and cocaine, by saying that he hasn't used drugs since he was 20 years old.So why did Corsi raise the subject when it supposedly has been put to rest? It's because, as an experienced investigative reporter, he knows that a few perfunctory denials, which could be expected from someone running for office, do not constitute any form of proof or convincing answer that he in fact ever did quit drugs. As Corsi has suggested in defending his book's account of Obama's admitted drug use, self-reporting by drug users about when they quit is notoriously unreliable. Every drug addict claims to have quit at one time or another. That's what drug testing is all about.Joyce Nalepka, president of Drug-Free Kids: America's Challenge, points out that recovering cocaine addicts say that the high from cocaine is so intense that you never stop wanting it. She points to the case of former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who was caught twice using cocaine. Barry was caught in one case as a result of a police sting and another because of court-ordered drug testing.
Don't you believe Obama when he says he quit drugs? "No," replied Nalepka. "And I didn't believe Mayor Barry either."
The Soros ConnectionHowever, she does believe that, if Obama is elected, his backers in the drug legalization movement funded by billionaire George Soros will press for legalization of marijuana, cocaine and other dangerous drugs. Soros is a big backer of Obama and has contributed financially to his campaign.
During the Reagan Administration, Nalepka served as the president of the anti-drug group that Nancy Reagan served as honorary chair. She warns that Obama has "voted for at least two pro-legalization [of marijuana] bills" and that drug legalization advocates are spreading the word that Obama will not support federal enforcement of federal marijuana arrests. She said a questionnaire, which includes the question, "Do you support keeping drug possession, dealing and trafficking a crime?," has not been answered by the Obama campaign. John McCain, on the other hand, vows to "uphold the law," she says.
When she made several calls trying to find out what happened to the questionnaire, an Obama staff member said that the appropriate official would call "within the hour." But that was "weeks ago," Nalepka says.
Even if Obama took and passed a drug test, Nalepka says she would never vote for him, explaining, "It appalls me at the thought that people would be naïve enough to vote for someone who admits drug use." She says this view stems from 30 years of "watching parents wail and cry and talk about the hell their families went through" because of marijuana, cocaine and other drugs.
"I would never vote for an elected official who was ever a drug user," she tells AIM. "We have to get this country back to being an honorable nation with honorable people running it."
But the views of Nalepka and others in the campaign against illegal drugs have been ignored by media anxious to accept Obama's word that he has quit dangerous mind-altering drugs.
Nalepka is concerned that progress that has been made is at risk. "We worked long and hard to close those drug paraphernalia shops in the 1980s and long and hard again to get student drug testing in the schools so we could get drugs out of the schools," she said. "And we're going to allow someone to come in to the White House of the United States of America who was a drug user?"
Corsi's account of Obama's drug use is apparently one of many "lies" that an official Obama campaign spokesman has alleged to be in the book. The Times story defending Obama against Corsi's book was followed by a Washington Post story attacking the author. The liberal media have been forced to take note of the book because it has become number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Complete Article: http://www.rightsidenews.com/200808151723/editorial/obama-confirms-relationship-with-cpusa-member.html
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